LAS VEGAS — Here’s the thing with debuts: you just don’t know what’s coming.
The opening night of the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League saw the curtain raised on a whole class of first-time professionals — or at least first-time NBA pros.
Of local interest was the debut of Gradey Dick, the 13th pick in the NBA draft just a couple of weeks ago by the Toronto Raptors, who are hoping the slender 19-year-old can deliver some much-needed offensive punch in general and some even more desperately needed perimeter shooting, specifically.
Of global interest was the first NBA game — albeit of the Summer League variety — of Victor Wembanyama, the No. 1 pick in the draft by the San Antonio Spurs, who are hoping the slender 19-year-old can return them to championship contention in the not-too-distant future and keep them there for a decade to come by doing just about everything.
In each case, the result was as should have been expected, if not what people might have wished for: some flashes of the form that made each of them valued at the position that they were drafted, and some more moments where they looked like skinny teenagers trying to figure things out.
Dick shot just 2-of-9 from three in the Raptors’ 83-74 loss to the Chicago Bulls at Cox Pavilion. He got knocked to the floor on drives and missed some easy pull-up jumpers when he opted for those. He made some clever passes and competed well, but in the big picture, looked like a kid having taken a big step up in competition and playing for a new team, all while not having played a competitive basketball game since his Kansas Jayhawks were upset in the second round of the NCAA tournament back in the middle of March.
“It was great getting out early and competing again,” said Dick, whose best plays were a pair of drive-and-kick assists he created for his teammates in the first half. “It was good to get back into that flow and get out with this team and learn from it. But it was everything I thought it was going to be, and eye-opening and I hope I’ll learn from everything that happened in the game.”
He drew praise from Raptors Summer League head coach Joe Delaney who recognized Dick’s overall competitiveness and willingness to be engaged, but acknowledged any judgements will have to wait.
“Gradey didn’t probably shoot the ball as well [as he would like]but he probably hasn’t played five-on-five until this week, so it’s going to be a rhythm thing. … [but defensively]I thought he was super aggressive, super active. He was cutting off the ball … and the competitive spirit was great … and he did a lot of great things.”
The same could be said about Wembanyama whose game with the Spurs against the Charlotte Hornets and No. 2 pick Brandon Miller was played in front of a sold-out crowd of 17,500 in the Thomas and Mack Center at UNLV, compared to the couple of thousand or so that watched the Raptors and Dick at Cox Pavilion next door.
Wembanyama, the unquestioned No. 1 pick for most of the past 18 months, didn’t deliver on the inevitably excess hype. With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar watching courtside the star from Paris scored just nine points on 2-of-13 shooting while adding eight rebounds, three assists and five blocks in 27 minutes. He was 1-of-6 from three.
But it hardly mattered. The Spurs won and it was easy enough to see why Wembanyama was the first pick over Miller or anyone else. His best few plays early in his first NBA minutes were seeing eye passes to teammates that he found while beating his defender off the dribble. He never forced his offence, easily fit into the flow of the Spurs team and defensively was a presence on every possession he was on the floor.
Did he look ungainly at other moments and have a hard time getting the ball in the basket and failed to record any significant highlight? It doesn’t matter. He’s got a career ahead of him to be great, though the sold-out crowd might have wished more.
In Dick’s case, you could make the same argument. His best moment was probably when he recovered from shooting an airball on a wide-open three-point attempt in the second quarter — one of a pair of big misses for the Kansas star who shot 40 per cent from three as a freshman — and then nailed his first three from the corner on the next possession. It spoke volumes.
“I know I’m young, I’m just 19, but the experiences I’ve had, I’ve been shooting my whole life in practice gyms and big-game moments so it’s just about having that short-term memory,” he said when asked how he plays through tough shooting nights. “I air-balled that three and kept that shot-term memory and came back and hit that corner three was good for my mental, for sure. But just knowing that these are the games you learn a lot from.”
In each instance, the headliners were upstaged by some lower-profile co-stars. In the Raptors’ case, it was Markquis Nowell, the 5-foot-7 point guard from Kansas State who led Toronto with 17 points, five assists and four steals and teamed with 7-foot-2 centre Moses Brown on some pick-and-roll actions.
For the Spurs, it was Julian Champagnie — brother of former Raptors prospect Justin — who finished with 20 points, eight rebounds and six assists, including a highlight-worthy slam over Charlotte centre James Nnaji.
But the good news for Dick and Wembanyama is that the pair of 19-year-olds have plenty of chances to prove what their teams saw in them was evident. Even in debuts that were not the storybook openers that they might have been hoped for.
The Raptors and Spurs — and Dick and Wembanyama — are back at it on Sunday with a chance to smooth off some rough edges but more importantly, they will have another 10 to 15 years after that to perfect their craft.
They might not have had the debuts everyone else would have loved to see, but Friday night in the desert, it was truly just the start.
